Jameson Wetmore

Jameson Wetmore is an associate professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and co-director of the Center for Engagement and Training in Science and Society at Arizona State University. His work combines the fields of science and technology studies, ethics, and public policy in order to better understand both the interconnected relationships between technology and society and the forces that change those relationships over time. His research spans a broad array of topics and time periods, but most of it comes back to a recurring question: How do people design and create technological systems and, in turn, how do these technological systems help to define, reinforce and propagate specific values?

For instance, Professor Wetmore has studied how the Old Order Amish regulate the technologies they use in order to strengthen their communities. He has examined the complex systems in place in New Orleans to prevent disasters like Katrina. And he has explored how religious thinkers seek to influence the future of nanoscale research and policy. He is currently leading an NSF funded research project to study the developing community of computer scientists trained and working in East Africa. Much of this work is summed up in his co-edited book: "Technology and Society: Building our Sociotechnical Future" (MIT Press).

As co-director of the Center for Engagement & Training in Science and Society, Professor Wetmore works to develop ways for scientists, policymakers and others to think about the future of technology and society. As part of this center he is actively involved in training programs for graduate student scientists and engineers and works extensively with science museums and centers across the United States to find ways to integrate discussions about the social aspects of science and technology into their programming.

He is also the associate director for societal and ethical implications of the National Science Foundation's National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure Coordinating Office where he works to integrate the social studies of nanotechnology into the technical development of the field.